The Bureau of Prisons moved Ghislaine Maxwell to one of its least restrictive facilities last week at the behest of the Trump administration, which has given no explanation for the bizarrely preferential treatment.
So on Friday, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) demanded a formal explanation for the move from the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Given the highly unusual nature of the transfer, it would have had to be personally approved by a high-level BOP staffer.
In the letter, addressed to BOP Director William Marshall, Reed asks directly if BOP approved the transfer in response to a request from President Donald Trump or any other Trump administration official.
Sex offenders are not allowed to be sent to such facilities under BOP rules and require a special waiver for that to happen. “Sexual predators shouldn’t be afforded preferential treatment,” Reed said.
“Earlier this week, BOP transferred Ms. Maxwell to ... the least restrictive facility operated by BOP, reserved for non-violent first-time offenders or inmates who are at the tail end of longer sentences and are slated for release,” Reed noted in the letter.
“A serious felon can be transferred to a minimum-security prison camp only after the personal approval by the Chief of the BOP’s Designation and Sentence Computation Center, who ultimately reports to you,” he added.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sexually abusing and trafficking children alongside Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and former friend of Donald Trump who died in prison while awaiting trial during Trump’s first term.
Trump’s former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, met with Maxwell just days before the transfer. (Blanche now serves as the number two official at the Department of Justice.)
“Ms. Maxwell’s victims and the taxpayers are owed an explanation of why BOP undertook this highly unusual transfer,” said Reed.
“These circumstances raise serious questions ... about whether BOP is being politically pressured into reclassifying a violent felon as a low security risk against all evidence, which seems to elevate protection of President Trump’s personal reputation above public safety.”
Trump found himself engulfed in the conflagration after his administration touted that it would release the government’s files on the Epstein case and then refused to do so. Trump’s name reportedly pops up repeatedly in the files.
The president has also repeatedly refused to rule out pardoning Maxwell, who presumably could likely offer devastating testimony on Trump and Epstein’s relationship.
Reed has asked Marshall to respond to the letter no later than Aug. 20.
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